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Street, lost his dog: chained to its kennel, it drowned.
Who rescued old Richard and Jane? Or did they remain stoically or stubbornly in their home,
shivering damply in their nightclothes until the cold autumnal dawn? And still it rained.
In A History of Footscray, John Lack says: 'The disaster brought out the best in people. Friends
and neighbours took in the flood victims, and hotel-keepers at the Plough and Royal offered
rooms, soup and stimulants. On Wednesday morning J Ward Symons and A Sayer gathered
clothing, bedding and groceries from local businessmen and distributed them. Special gangs of
council-workers assisted in the clean-up... On the weekend, thousands of sightseers descended
on Footscray to see the damage done by five to eight inches of rain in a confined area: over 200
houses had been washed through, and £2000 damage done to bridges and roads.'
A national seamen's strike that began in May and lasted until August added to the general
misery, as food and coal supplies ran short and factories laid off men or shut down. 1919 was
not a happy year. But at the end of the year, when the flu, and floods and the seamen's strike
had faded away, Jack Honeycombe sailed from South Africa and returned to his native land.
He crossed the Indian Ocean a few months after Alcock and Brown had traversed the Atlantic,
for the first time by air. And soon after Jack's arrival in Australia, two brothers, Ross and Keith
Smith, made a landing at Darwin -having flown thither from southern England in just under 28
days. On the way they made 24 stops, and as a reward they won a £10,000 prize.
One day, in August 1989, a Quantas 747, unladen apart from a few special passengers, would
fly from London to Sydney, non-stop in just over 20 hours.
198
Richard's Children
Jack was 58 in November 1919, and a widower, his wife Jane having died in April the previous
year. She had left him and their children about £175 each, and this bounty, along with any
savings and a nostalgic desire to revisit the land where he was born may have prompted his
return. His four children had all married, and although he had several grandchildren, including
three grandsons who bore the Honeycombe name, he may not have been that interested in
them. Not a few Honeycombe men have led fairly independent lives; it was the women who
usually maintained family ties and kept in touch.
Perhaps Jack returned to Melbourne for his father's 90th birthday in September, and to see him
before the old man died. Perhaps his oldest sister Jane suggested the trip as a birthday surprise.
Perhaps Jack never intended to remain. But he did, staying with his father and his sister Jane in
the house in Albert St. He would have been a welcome guest if he was able to supplement the
elderly twosome's income, and he probably did, obtaining some work as a carpenter in
Footscray.
His three older brothers were dead, but he probably called on their widows and his nephews
and nieces; on Eliza in South Yarra; on Catherine in North Fitzroy; and on Fanny in Footscray.
He also probably visited his three married sisters: Mary Ann Regelsen; Harriet Steel; and Louisa
Allen. The youngest of them, Louisa, was 54 in November 1919; Mary Ann was 68.
Jack is said to have been a great talker. Not unlike his father in appearance, he was perky and
positive, short and slim (5'3"), and as he was now clean-shaven he probably, being a lively man,
looked younger than he was. A keen football and cricket fan, he smoked a pipe and always
wore a waistcoat, collar and tie. In his youth he had played football and cricket for local teams.
He now enjoyed playing cribbage; he also enjoyed his food. Aunt Lil said of him: 'He'd eat
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